Far From The Madding Crowd – Review | F*** Magazine Far From The Madding Crowd – Review 2 July, 2015 12:01 am | Shawne Wang Director : Thomas Vinterberg Cast : Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge Genre : Drama/Romance Opens : 2 July 2015 Rating : PG A decent adaptation of a problematic novel, which awkwardly tries to find a feminist angle where there isn’t much of one to begin with. How do you solve a problem like Bathsheba Everdene? It’s a question that has plagued literary enthusiasts since 1874, when Thomas Hardy first introduced her to the world in one of his classic novels, Far From The Madding Crowd. Today, 141 years later, that same question haunts Thomas Vinterberg’s sumptuous, smart adaptation – one that tries valiantly, but doesn’t wholly succeed, in celebrating the strength of a character that was always somewhat illusory to begin with.

In a time ruled and defined exclusively by men, Bathsheba Everdene (Mulligan) stands apart as a free-spirited, independent young lass who refuses to bow to convention. When she inherits the farm belonging to her late uncle, she insists on running it herself – working in the fields and sacking the male workers who disrespect her authority. Small wonder, then, that Bathsheba draws the attention of three suitors, each one representing a different social class and a unique brand of manhood: stoic farmer Gabriel Oak (Schoenaerts); stern, serious-minded landowner William Boldwood (Sheen); and sexy, emotionally scarred sergeant Francis Troy (Sturridge). The main problem with Hardy’s novel, which is largely replicated in Vinterberg’s faithful adaptation, is its awkward attitude towards its lead female character. To be sure, Hardy gives Bathsheba a modern voice that still rings true today: “It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in a language chiefly made by men to express theirs,” she declares. It’s a line so delicious that screenwriter David Nicholls nicked it wholesale for the film.

And yet, on a deeper reading of the novel, it becomes far harder to tell whether Hardy is celebrating Bathsheba’s independence, or punishing her for it. To their credit, Vinterberg and Nicholls do try a little harder to add a truly feminist bent to their version of Bathsheba’s story. More care is taken to forge a genuine emotional connection between Bathsheba and Gabriel, even as her seduction of William Boldwood is made less purposeful. Bathsheba still finds herself approaching Sergeant Troy with lust rather than caution, but she does so in a more clear-eyed manner. In effect, Mulligan’s Bathsheba seems bemused at and somewhat resigned to the sillier decisions she makes in her romantic pursuits. The trouble is that, while these little changes do add up to a stronger character, they also result in thematic and tonal confusion. The truth of the matter is that Hardy was not always concerned with celebrating Bathsheba as a character in her own right – he was frequently more interested in commenting on the ideal romantic suitor, the kind of man to whom Bathsheba should give her heart. There’s never any doubt, in Hardy’s mind at least, what her choice should be.

After a point, then, Vinterberg’s film flounders because there is, truthfully, no real tension in the romantic dilemma that stares Bathsheba in the face. It’s a shame, because Vinterberg has brought Hardy’s world to life with a very good cast indeed. Mulligan plays the fire and spirit of Bathsheba well, although she’s trapped as much by the script as her character is by Hardy’s words and ideas in the novel. As the sturdy Gabriel Oak (his surname says it all), Schoenaerts turns a rather dull but handy lump of a man into a semi-credible romantic prospect. The ever-reliable Sheen doesn’t have quite enough screen-time, but nevertheless packs a great deal of depth and despair into the loss of William Boldwood’s heart (and, perhaps, mind) to the charms of Ms. Everdene. There’s almost more to be enjoyed in the semi-confessional scene shared by these two very different men as they sheepishly dance around their feelings for the same woman. Sturridge, meanwhile, is the relatively weaker link in the cast; his performance is fuelled more by his sexy moustache and saucy swordmanship than anything else.

At a point in time when female-led films are being discussed, dissected and celebrated more than ever before, Far From The Madding Crowd would – at least on the surface – appear to be part of this growing tradition. The filmmakers have certainly tried to create a version of Bathsheba Everdene that’s unequivocally appealing to a modern audience. But it’s an effort that, ultimately, doesn’t quite work, since the point of Hardy’s novel was arguably more about the man Bathsheba should marry, and less about Bathsheba herself. Summary: A decent adaptation of a problematic novel, which awkwardly tries to find a feminist angle where there isn’t much of one to begin with. RATING: 2.5 out of 5 stars Shawne Wang ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’ Review: Carey Mulligan as Classic Hardy Heroine | Variety Print April 2, 2015 | 02:08AM PT Carey Mulligan makes a fine Bathsheba Everdene in Thomas Vinterberg's solid but unremarkable version of the Thomas Hardy classic.

When Thomas Hardy named his fourth novel “Far From the Madding Crowd” in 1874, he almost certainly meant the title ironically — a riposte to the notion that the rural folk of his beloved English countryside somehow led simpler lives, less tempest-tossed by desire, than their urban counterparts. But you could almost mistake Hardy for a literalist on the basis of Thomas Vinterberg ’s calm, stately new film version — the fourth official filming of the novel (which first reached the screen as a 1915 silent), and a perfectly respectable, but never particularly stirring, night at the movies. Probably the Danish Vinterberg’s most accomplished foray into English-language filmmaking (after the gun-control allegory “Dear Wendy” and the futuristic Joaquin Phoenix-Claire Danes romance “It’s All About Love”), this pared-down if generally faithful adaptation benefits from a solid cast and impeccable production values, though the passions that drive Hardy’s characters remain more stated than truly felt. Still, the “Downton Abbey” set will find much to enjoy here, and should generate pleasing returns for this May 1 Fox Searchlight release.

Despite the charges of misogyny that have repeatedly been hurled at him through the retroactive prism of political correctness, Hardy was a writer of many tough-minded, resourceful female characters whose independence of mind and body set them at odds with the patriarchal codes of the Victorian era. Among the most enduring of those heroines is “Madding Crowd’s” Bathsheba Everdene ( Carey Mulligan ), a plucky, willful young woman of no particular means (like her latter-day namesake, Katniss), who nevertheless sees no compelling reason to settle down with a man she doesn’t truly love — even one as modest and sincere in his affections as the farmer Gabriel Oak ( Matthias Schoenaerts ), neighbor to Bathsheba’s aunt among the rolling Dorset hills. Gabriel’s hand, clumsily proffered and instantly rejected, is but the first of three that come Bathsheba’s way over the course of the novel (which, looked at one way, resembles a 19th-century “Dating Game”), as romantic and financial fates rise and fall, and time, as it is wont to do, marches on undeterred.

If Vinterberg does not immediately spring to mind as a likely Hardy interpreter, it may be because the author’s countryman, Michael Winterbottom, seemed to hold exclusive Hardy mining rights for most of the past two decades, during which he delivered a superior “Jude,” an India-set “Tess” (“Trishna”) and a massively underrated version of “The Mayor of Casterbridge” (transposed to the American West and retitled “The Claim”). But consider Vinterberg’s earlier work — especially his breakthrough “The Celebration” and the recent child-abuse drama “The Hunt” — and you can see that he shares a certain Hardyan understanding of insular communities and the sudden shifts of fate that can turn a patron into a pariah, or vice versa. He’s also found a very fine Bathsheba in Mulligan, who, at 29 (practically over-the-hill by Victorian/Hollywood standards), has added an appealing wistfulness to her fresh-faced-ingenue’s repertoire. Her Bathsheba is a less impetuous, more grounded creature than the one played by a radiant Julie Christie in John Schlesinger’s 1967 film version.

When she delivers the character’s famous declaration, “I shall astonish you all,” Mulligan makes it sound like the person she’s most trying to convince is herself. It is Bathsheba’s sudden ascent (via inheritance) to the land-owning class that ushers Hardy’s story into its second act, and which drives a further wedge between Bathsheba and Gabriel, who, having suffered his own reversal of fortune, finds himself working as a shepherd in her employ. From there, he suffers (mostly) in silence as Bathsheba capriciously flirts with the wealthy bachelor farmer Boldwood ( Michael Sheen ), before finally surrendering to the charms of the young Sgt. Frank Troy (Tom Sturridge), himself on the rebound from the servant girl Fanny Robin ( Juno Temple ), who left him high and dry at the altar when she went to the wrong church by mistake.

(Lo, the life-altering crises that have been averted by smartphones.) Frank is, literally and figuratively, a swordsman of some repute — the basis for one of Hardy’s most famous passages, in which the uniformed soldier parries and thrusts his blade at a quivering Bathsheba, a transparent act of swordplay as foreplay. (“She took up her position as directed,” Hardy writes.) It becomes, in turn, the best scene in Vinterberg’s film, thanks largely to the cockeyed swagger of Sturridge, who has never seemed quite this dangerously alive in a movie. Reckless bravado seeps through Frank’s pores like a fever, and his words tumble forth in a sleepy purr, as if his every utterance were a seduction, or a dare. None of the other characters burn quite so brightly — in particular Gabriel.

This may be the first time that the chameleonic, Belgian-born Schoenaerts (who made a big impression as Marion Cotillard’s brooding boxer beau in “Rust and Bone” and again in last year’s “The Drop”) has seemed less than entirely sure of himself onscreen, underplaying so much (and grappling with a come-and-go British accent) that the already recessive Gabriel risks becoming a peripheral character in what is, ostensibly, his own story. (It’s hard not to imagine what Vinterberg’s “The Hunt” star, Mads Mikkelsen, might have done differently with the role.) Of course, one of the challenges in adapting “Madding Crowd” is that the novel has five main characters united by an omniscient narrator who not only knows the inner workings of their hearts and minds, but editorializes on their behavior as he goes along. Stripped of that device, Vinterberg’s movie (which was scripted by veteran British screenwriter David Nicholls) sometimes seems like a compass unable to find true north.

And where Schlesinger’s film seemed to creak under the weight of its own epic portent, the new one lurches from one major event to the next without quite enough down time in-between, a Cliff’s Notes approach that clocks in under two hours (one full hour less than the ’67 version) but compromises the story’s panoramic sweep. It also reduces Fanny (and, with her, Temple’s guileless performance) to glorified cameo status, making it hard to understand why her ultimate fate, when revealed, sends another character into paroxysms of despair. What does register at every turn is a vibrant sense of time and place that pulls us into Hardy’s bygone world even when the drama falters. Shooting on location in the real Dorset, Vinterberg and regular cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen rely mostly on natural light and spacious widescreen frames to capture the land in all its rugged, forbidding beauty — a look as transporting, in its way, as the fog-shrouded majesty of Polanski’s “Tess.” Kave Quinn’s muddied, weathered sets and Janet Patterson’s costumes add to the sense of a hard-working society where function trumps decorous forms.

Composer Craig Armstrong’s richly orchestrated but sparingly used score does its best to articulate the bottled-up emotions the characters themselves can not. Film Review: 'Far From the Madding Crowd' Reviewed at Fox screening room, New York, March 26, 2015. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 118 MIN. Production (U.S.-U.K.) A Fox Searchlight Pictures release and presentation in association with BBC Films and TSG Entertainment of a DNA Films production. Produced by Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich. Executive producer, Christine Langan. Co-producer, Anita Overland. Crew Directed by Thomas Vinterberg. Screenplay, David Nicholls, based on the novel by Thomas Hardy. Camera (Technicolor prints, widescreen), Charlotte Bruus Christensen; editor, Claire Simpson; music, Craig Armstrong; production designer, Kave Quinn; costume designer, Janet Patterson; sound (Dolby Digital), Mitch Low; sound designer, Glenn Freemantle; associate producer, Joanne Smith; casting, Nina Gold, Theo Park.

Movie Review: 'Far From the Madding Crowd' tells story of love, desire - Entertainment - MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA - Framingham, MA Movie Review: 'Far From the Madding Crowd' tells story of love, desire Friday May 8, 2015 at 7:00 AM May 8, 2015 at 8:19 AM Carrie Mulligan plays the beautiful and headstrong Bathsheba Everdene in the umpteenth variation on Thomas Hardy's classic novel. Thomas Vinterberg (“The Hunt”) directs. First, some clarification. No need to wonder about things like titles and names. The word “madding” is a shortened form of the word “maddening.” The heroine’s name Bathsheba Everdene, was definitely lifted, with a spelling change, for Katniss Everdeen in “The Hunger Games.” OK, on to this newest adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s novel of love and its problems in 19th century rural England.

It boasts a love-at-first-sight beginning, with farmer-shepherd Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts) setting eyes upon Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan), just arrived to visit and work on her aunt’s neighboring farm. Gabriel, young, sweet and kind of lonely, but with ambitious plans, soon meets her and almost immediately asks for her hand in marriage. Bathsheba, a strong-willed, fiercely independent woman, has nothing against that institution, but would rather it didn’t involve a husband to get in the way of things. “No,” she says. “You’d never be able to tame me. You’d grow to despise me.” Gabriel walks away, distraught. If he had a tail, it would be between his legs. Things happen, circumstances change. Gabriel is struggling on his rented farmland, and courtesy of bad luck and an overambitious dog, goes broke. Bathsheba is comparatively middle class to begin with, then, via an inheritance, suddenly owns a farm. She leaves her aunt’s place for one of her own, just as Gabriel gives up his place and heads for the unknown. Fate will bring them back together, with him becoming her shepherd.

Now, that could be a whole story in itself. Something on the order of her changing her mind about him (and husbands in general), them falling in love, marrying, and together running the farm happily ever after. But, no. That’s a fairy tale, not the way of a complicated Victorian novel. There are other men, two of them, each as different from the other as imaginable, both as different from Gabriel as can be, who are smitten Bathsheba. The older, wealthy, set-in-his-ways farmer William Boldwood (Michael Sheen), and the swashbuckling and caddish Sgt. Francis Troy (Tom Sturridge). This becomes a story of a woman trying to prove that she can hold her own – running a farm, selling the grain she grows – in a time when such a thing just wasn’t heard of. Hardy’s Bathsheba is likely one of the first truly liberated women in literature. That part of her is very positive. But Hardy also instills her with the affliction of making bad decisions, or at least of making up her mind before thinking things through, and most of those, wouldn’t you know it, involve men.

Three questions, one about each “man in her life”: Why does she reject Gabriel, someone she seems to like, without even getting to know him? Why does she, just for a giggle, send an anonymous valentine card to Boldwood? Why does she give a second glance at Sgt. Troy when she’s obviously intelligent enough to stay away from that sort of fellow (especially after hearing so many rumors about him from those she trusts)? This is a story that depends on coincidence to move the plot forward, but all of it easy to swallow. There’s drama and heartbreak and even a touch of humor, but it eventually becomes a tale of the many sides of romance. It’s about some people pining for it, others running away from it, and still others being confounded by it. Carey Mulligan is more than adequate as Bathsheba, but something, perhaps a big enough spark of vibrancy, is missing in her performance, keeping it from being a great one. Tom Sturridge isn’t given enough screentime to fully embody Troy’s few strengths and many weaknesses (more of his background story, which is told in the book, is needed for some of his actions to make sense).

Matthias Schoenaerts is on the mark as the virtuous Gabriel Oak, and the Belgian actor shows amazing range from his recent role as a dead-eyed thug in “The Drop.” But acting kudos here go to Michael Sheen as the confused, desperate, sad-eyed, socially inept Boldwood, who no doubt will make some viewers weep when he puts on an understandably forced smile. The film, as did the novel, eventually enters full-blown melodramatic territory, but it’s done in such a tasteful, low-key manner, it all goes down very easily. About Us Love and Marriage in “The Madding Crowd” | The American Conservative Love and Marriage in “The Madding Crowd” Alex Bailey/Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation **Spoilers Below** You can always tell it’s a Hardy novel when fate brings horribly bad things to good and likable people: a well-meaning sheep dog runs his herd off a cliff to their death, thus ruining the fortunes of the kind farmer who herded them. A young bride gets confused and shows up at the wrong church—thus resulting in her groom’s rage and humiliation, and (eventually) her own demise.

A stately gentleman receives a valentine in jest, and it turns his whole world upside down. Far From the Madding Crowd is one of Hardy’s most interesting works: it features a strong female lead in Bathsheba Everdene (apparently the inspiration for Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games protagonist, Katniss Everdeen), several surprising plot twists, and a strong cast of supporting characters. The new movie adaptation directed by Thomas Vinterburg is stately and Austen-esque, but—however tamed down they may be—one can’t miss those black moments of Hardy fate. The film begins when Bathsheba (Carey Mulligan) goes to live and work with her aunt. There, she meets humble sheep farmer Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts), who becomes enamored with this independent young woman. But when Gabriel proposes, Bathsheba turns him down quickly, declaring herself too independent. Not long after, Gabriel loses his farm and livelihood in a tragic accident—meanwhile, due to a stroke of good luck, Bathsheba inherits a farm. Thus Gabriel ends up working in Bathsheba’s employ, and has a front and center seat for all the drama that begins to unfold around her.

A neighboring landowner (Michael Sheen) falls for Bathsheba after she sends him a valentine as a joke; his admiration quickly turns obsessive. Another suitor enters the scene: Sergeant Frank Troy (Tom Sturridge). The soldier is supposedly sexy and irresistible (yet, at least in my eyes, more ridiculous than convincing). Hardy’s Troy appears to have both more magnetism and more vice than his cinematic counterpart. As Lawrence Toppman puts it in the Charlotte Observer, the film’s Frank, rather than being chronic womanizer and liar, is “just a guy who makes bad choices, and the role is cut so much that he becomes a nuisance, rather than a threat to village stability.” Throughout the story’s twists and turns, Hardy presents three choices of marriage for the young Bathsheba. First, there’s the choice that’s founded on lust, passion. Frank seduces Bathsheba, and she falls for him. It seems uncharacteristic of this strong and independent young woman—but Mulligan does a good job showing the two sides of her heroine: there’s the resourceful and independent Bathsheba, yes, but there is also the vulnerable and innocent orphan, who knows little of the world.

Troy is the stereotypical “bad boy,” who promises her excitement and passion. Importantly, Bathsheba’s choice goes horribly wrong: underneath the glamor and romance, we find that Troy lacks character. He also disdains farm work, leaving Bathsheba without a partner in life. The second marital choice presented here is Boldwood: a middle-aged and wealthy gentleman, who promises Bathsheba every comfort. In his quiet and composed proposal, he is quick to list off things such as “comfort,” “safety,” and material possessions he can give her. The opposite of Troy, he offers Bathsheba a marriage of security—but not of love. He may be more of a partner and help to her than the wild soldier, but they are mismatched in almost every other way. So many modern marriages fall into the first trap: confusing lust with love. We make choices based on feeling, but little else. These marriages fall apart as life grows difficult, as character flaws and personal differences are revealed. Meanwhile, it seems that many classical marriages followed the pattern of the second choice: in arduous times, when one’s future comfort and security often rested on the prospects of a good marriage, many married safely.

Charlotte Lucas’s marriage to Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice is perhaps one popular literary example of this. Yet Hardy presents us with a third choice—Bathsheba’s final choice is also her first: Gabriel. They become dear friends. They rely on each other. They are partners in work, both tending the farm with devotion. Gabriel is steady, loyal, and a man of good character. And they care for each other. This match is an idealized one, certainly, but not an impossible one. In Gabriel, Bathsheba finds the perfect combination of good character, friendship, and love. They marry knowing each other’s weaknesses and strengths, already having had to forgive each other a great deal. Mulligan brings to this movie much of the quiet intelligence and grace she portrayed in the BBC production of “Bleak House”: she’s determined, resourceful, and has a touch of tragedy in her air. This depiction is, however, not entirely true to Hardy’s Bathsheba: as Lucasta Miller notes in the Guardian , “Hardy’s heroine is a paradoxical character, designed to provoke, tease and confuse the reader just as she does her suitors.

The new film, in contrast, presents a Bathsheba who is ‘hygienic’ for modern audiences: an empathetic, egalitarian modern feminist, self-empowered but not motivated by power.” Schoenaerts and Sheen are likable and nuanced characters, though also perhaps toned down to some extent. Sturridge was the main one to disappoint, with his overly melodramatic flourishes and sleepy, emotionless expressions. Vinterburg’s film has its modernized twists, but the bones of Hardy’s novel are still here. Compared to the rom-coms that normally appear in theaters, “Far From the Madding Crowd” possesses more honesty and candor about the mistakes we make in love—and the virtues that are necessary in order to make it worthwhile. 3 Responses to Love and Marriage in “The Madding Crowd” EliteCommInc. Far from the Madding Crowd – does the film live up to Hardy's novel? | Books | The Guardian Thomas Hardy Far from the Madding Crowd – does the film live up to Hardy's novel? Far from the Madding Crowd might be Hardy’s sunniest novel, but it is also subversive and unsettling.

Thomas Vinterberg’s new film adaptation creates a Bathsheba for the modern audience, but does it capture the book’s strangeness and erotic energy? Carey Mulligan as Bathsheba Everdene in Thomas Vinterberg’s Far from the Madding Crowd. Allstar Picture Library/Fox Searchlight Friday 24 April 2015 09.07 EDT Last modified on Tuesday 20 September 2016 06.09 EDT Share on Messenger Close Far from the Madding Crowd has been called the “warmest and sunniest” of Thomas Hardy ’s novels. In contrast to the inexorable tragedy of Tess of the D’Urbervilles or the nihilistic horror of Jude the Obscure , it indeed has a conventional happy ending. The narrative follows the fortunes of the spirited “woman-farmer” Bathsheba Everdene and her three suitors: the sturdy, steady shepherd Gabriel Oak; Sergeant Troy, a dangerous Don Juan in uniform; and the repressed gentleman farmer William Boldwood. Gabriel is ultimately rewarded for his constancy, and the book ends with his wedding to Bathsheba.

However, the plot also contains elements which are far from warm or sunny: murder, insanity, a macabre coffin-opening scene featuring the corpses of a mother and her baby, life-threatening elemental eruptions of fire and thunderstorm, numerous violent animal deaths, and sexual symbolism so brazen that it can only have been intended to cock a snook at Victorian prudery. How to square the novel’s contradictory impulses was a puzzle to its first readers, and remains so, newly thrown into relief by the release of Thomas Vinterberg ’s film version, starring Carey Mulligan . Although Far from the Madding Crowd was Hardy’s first resounding literary success, reviewers could not agree on how to read it. When it originally came out, anonymously in serial form in the Cornhill Magazine in 1874, one critic thought he could detect the hand of George Eliot , who was already known for her realist treatments of rural life in works such as Silas Marner and Adam Bede .

Yet the Westminster Review concluded that, on the contrary, it had more affinity with the “sensation” school of fiction as practised by Mary Braddon, the bestselling author of Aurora Floyd and Lady Audley’s Secret, who specialised in convention-busting female characters, in melodramatic twists and in subverting bourgeois complacency. The comparison was meant to be unflattering, as the sensation school – despite its sophistication in the hands of writers such as Braddon and Wilkie Collins – was felt by the Victorian literary establishment to lack both moral and aesthetic legitimacy. Despite its happy ending, Far From the Madding Crowd is an unsettling, unstable book. Its very title – a quotation from Gray’s “Elegy written in a Country Churchyard” – is an ironic literary joke. Gray idealises the “noiseless” and “sequestered” calm of country life, where “sober wishes never learned to stray”; Hardy disrupts the idyll, and not just by introducing the sound and fury of an extreme plot into the pastoral world. Like Braddon and Collins, he was out to subvert his readers’ complacency.

Pinterest Trailer for Far from the Madding Crowd Born in 1840 in a tiny Dorset hamlet, Hardy’s own origins were as obscure as those of his fictional Jude. The son of a builder and a former domestic servant, born shortly after their shotgun wedding, he was fortunate in having a determined, ambitious and unusually well-read mother who prioritised his education. Although university was out of the question, he found work in an architect’s office, and, after moving to London, began to write in his spare time. His first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady (now lost), was rejected by publishers because it exposed too readily – and too radically – the author’s own class insecurities and resentments in its treatment of a star-crossed love affair between a young architect from a working-class background and a girl of higher status. Its angry depiction of the upper classes was thought too likely to stir political “mischief”. In response, Hardy turned to the “pastoral” as what he called “the safest venture”. Hardy’s unique literary calling-card was his intimate, first-hand knowledge of the countryside where he grew up.

He was so excited at times while writing Far From the Madding Crowd at his parents’ cottage that, while out walking, he had to grab a leaf or a stone on which to scribble phrases. But his was no untutored natural genius welling forth. Far from the Madding Crowd astonishes with its craft. It also shows Hardy surreptitiously redirecting his seditious instincts into experimentation with literary technique. The peasants in the story are generally presented as happy with their lot; it is the novel form in Hardy’s hands that resists the order of things. Socially, Hardy was a man on the margins. Aesthetically, he also disrupted genre boundaries. Unlike Gray’s sober peasant who never learned to stray, he created a hybrid voice, which moved between pastoral, social realism, melodrama, gothic and sensation. It is as if Hardy wants to keep his readers in suspense not just as to which of her three suitors Bathsheba will choose, but as to which literary mode he is writing in. It is an index of his genius that he does so without sacrificing readability.

John Schlesinger ’s classic 1967 film version (with Julie Christie as Bathsheba, Alan Bates as Oak, Terence Stamp as Troy and Peter Finch as Boldwood) takes risks by embracing the original’s atmosphere of extremes. Vinterberg’s film, in contrast, which has a screenplay by David Nicholls, is a realist, “George Eliot”-version of Hardy that pushes the more mannered elements of the story to the margins, almost as if in embarrassment. In doing so, it “normalises” what is in reality a deeply unsettling book, and, despite some good performances, neutralises much of its power. In the novel, for example, the unrequited lover Boldwood becomes a fetishistic obsessive, secretly stockpiling women’s clothes labelled with Bathsheba’s name, driven to madness – and ultimately murder – not just by frustration but by his cruel and calculated sexual humiliation at Troy’s hands. Finch in the earlier film renders him as twitchily psychotic by the end.

Michael Sheen in the new version turns in a beautifully underplayed performance, but the result is a character who would not seem out of place in a novel by Mrs Gaskell, and whose final murderous act seems out of character and perfunctory. Pinterest Bathsheba with Troy, played by Tom Sturridge, in Far from the Madding Crowd. Photograph: Allstar Collection/Fox Significantly, one of the scenes from the novel omitted by Vinterberg is the extraordinary one in which Sergeant Troy – who has married Bathsheba but disappeared, presumed drowned – re-appears having joined a low-life travelling theatre-cum-circus troupe. At the local country fair, Bathsheba joins the audience in the tent and watches him in the role of Dick Turpin, unaware of his true identity. In its theatricality – and implicit commentary on the novel as an entertainment – the scene could have come directly from sensation fiction, where masquerade is a frequent theme (as in Collins’s No Name, in which the strong, amoral heroine Magdalen uses her talents at stage-acting to pursue her goals).

In Schlesinger’s hands, the events teeter as boldly on the edge of surreal absurdity as they do in Hardy’s original (which is probably why Vinterberg avoids them as an affront to his more naturalistic sensibility). Schlesinger’s greater willingness to engage with Hardy’s sensational side means that, even when he departs from the novel, he gets closer to its spirit. The famous scene in which Troy dazzles Bathsheba with his phallic swordplay takes place on a barren hillside, not in the sexually symbolic “hollow amid the ferns” where, in the book, she waits “trembling and panting” for him to “produce his sword” like a “living thing” so that he can “thrust” at her. Vinterberg, in contrast, faithfully films the scene in a fern hollow, but it is reduced to just that, a fern hollow. His Troy, Tom Sturridge, has none of the dangerous sociopathic erotic energy harnessed by Stamp’s stagey yet dangerously disinhibited performance. Like much sensation fiction, Hardy’s novel deals in gender ambiguity and in role play, with its powerful heroine who rides astride like a man.

Yet the original Bathsheba is also masochistically accepting of her female fate, determined to “stand [her] ground and be cut to pieces” rather than leave Troy when her marriage to him becomes torture. Hardy’s heroine is a paradoxical character, designed to provoke, tease and confuse the reader just as she does her suitors. The new film, in contrast, presents a Bathsheba who is “hygienic” for modern audiences: an empathetic, egalitarian modern feminist, self-empowered but not motivated by power. Is Far From the Madding Crowd really warm and sunny? The happy ending may seem to fulfil the will of some benign natural Providence, in contrast to the cruel fatalism found in Hardy’s later works. But there are hints that he is already moving in that direction. In one of the dialogues between two farm workers, the question of fate comes up.

When the gloomier man complains “Your lot is your lot and Scripture’s nothing: for if you do good you don’t get rewarded,” his more optimistic fellow rejoins: “No, no; I don’t agree … God’s a perfect gentleman in that respect.” For the author of The Poor Man and the Lady the idea of God as a gentleman can only be a bitter joke. The Hardy of Jude the Obscure is already there in embryo. Far From the Madding Crowd goes on general release on 1 May. Far From the Madding Crowd | Malden Public Library | BiblioCommons Far From the Madding Crowd DVD - 2015 Print Based on the literary classic by Thomas Hardy about Bathsheba Everdene who is an independent woman who attracts three different suitors: a sheep farmer; a dashing soldier; and a prosperous, older bachelor. This timeless story of Bathsheba's passions explores the nature of relationships, love and resilience.

Publisher: [Place of publication not identified] : [Publisher not identified], [2015] Branch Call Number: Far FAR FROM THE Characteristics: 1 videodisc (119 min.) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in digital,optical,surround,Dolby Digital 5.1,rda digital,optical,stereo,Dolby 2.0,rda video file,DVD video,rda A little boring in spots. Contains Sexual Content that was not necessary. Not highly recommended. Like e empbee Dec 26, 2016 A well adapted movie of Thomas Hardy's story. Some of the characters are not what you would imagine the strong willed independent woman would fall for. However, they all play well. Like Allegro15 Dec 09, 2016 Enamored of this movie adaptation! Carey Mulligan and Matthias Schoenaert were outstanding and the cinematography excellent! What I want to know is...where, oh where, are the Gabriel Oaks for all our intelligent, incredibly capable, and independently headstrong Bathsheba Everdene daughters??

...hmm, (note to self...must search out the rolling hillsides for sheep, errant Irish sheepdog, and...hah!). Like b BridgettM Nov 05, 2016 I'm sure there are some people who rush to see every film adaptation of classic novels. I am not one of those people and I have not read the adult fiction book of the same title, but I enjoyed this movie more than I expected I would. It is rated PG-13 for some sexuality and violence. Like a Amnebe Oct 24, 2016 I've read probably 10 of Hardy's novels and found this one okay but forgettable. However, the movie version made more of an impression on me. It's well cast and well acted. While there's plenty of peril along the way, the movie ends on a warm and delightful note. While I'd not read the book again, I'd certainly watch the movie again. Like a AmyEighttrack Aug 17, 2016 A "feel good" movie. Yep. Go ahead, play on my sentimental heartstrings... Can I say that? Oh yeah, I just did... Escapist? Yes...

Like d durogoff Aug 09, 2016 If Hardy's novel is rather verbose for a 21st Century reader, the film is only understandable after reading it. The adaptation, while trying to be quite literal, particularly in the dialogues, lacks coherence because the long explanations of the novel are not there. Thus for instance, several commenters had problems with the scene of the sheep going over the cliff, which the book clearly if rather too much at length explains. While the acting, the scenery and the photography made the movie, the editing of the scenes is choppy, most likely because of the need to keep the film not too long. It would have gained by making it 3 hours long, or even a mini-series. Like c chriscoleman Jul 05, 2016 I have not read the novel. I loved the movie. The scene with the sheep going off the cliff was really disturbing. I was not expecting that and it's pretty abrupt. Here's the plot. Gabriel is a young farmer with a flock of sheep. Bathsheba is a young girl staying with her aunt. They become friends and he proposes. She says no, something unheard of back then.

She goes back to the city and his flock is decimated by a tragic accident. He is left penniless, wandering around for work. He comes across Bathsheba again, only now she owns a large farm. She hires him and he saves her farm. Meanwhile she has another suitor, a neighbor almost twice her age who she jokingly asks to marry her. He takes it seriously. She rebukes him and then ends up marrying a man she just met who turns out to be a cheater and someone who will spend all of her money. There's a history with him and a young girl he got pregnant, but I won't go there. Anyway, any more would be giving away the farm. It does have a happy ending, but it takes a lot to get there. I'm a big fan of Pride and Prejudice as well as Sense and Sensibility. This one isn't as good but close enough to give it five stars. I think a lot of the negative ratings stem from the heroine's acting. She is over the top a lot, but back then any woman who had an opinion was over the top.

Like j jimg2000 Oct 14, 2015 Bathsheba: It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in a language chiefly made by men to express theirs. Bathsheba: Mr Oak, I don't want a husband. I'd hate to be some man's property. I shouldn't mind being a bride at a wedding if I could be one without getting a husband! Bathsheba: From now on, you have a mistress, not a master. I don't yet know my talents in farming, but I shall do my best. Don't suppose, because I'm a woman, I don't know the difference between bad goings-on and good. I shall be up before you're awake. I shall be a-field before you are up. It is my intention to astonish you all. === Bathsheba: A man did ask to marry me once. Some time ago. But I was too restless to be tied down. Maid: What a luxury, to have a choice.

"Kiss my foot, sir, my face is for mouths of consequence." Far From the Madding Crowd | Vancouver Island Regional Library | BiblioCommons Far From the Madding Crowd DVD - 2015 Print Based on the literary classic by Thomas Hardy about Bathsheba Everdene, an independent woman who attracts three different suitors: a sheep farmer, a dashing soldier, and a prosperous, older bachelor. This timeless story of Bathsheba's passions explores the nature of relationships, love, and resilience. Publisher: Beverly Hills, CA :, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment,, 2015 Branch Call Number: DVD MOVIE FAR Characteristics: video file,DVD video,region 1,rda digital,optical,surround,Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0,rda 1 videodisc (119 minutes) : sound, colour ; 4 3/4 inches A little boring in spots. Contains Sexual Content that was not necessary. Not highly recommended. Like e empbee Dec 26, 2016 A well adapted movie of Thomas Hardy's story.

Some of the characters are not what you would imagine the strong willed independent woman would fall for. However, they all play well. Like Allegro15 Dec 09, 2016 Enamored of this movie adaptation! Carey Mulligan and Matthias Schoenaert were outstanding and the cinematography excellent! What I want to know is...where, oh where, are the Gabriel Oaks for all our intelligent, incredibly capable, and independently headstrong Bathsheba Everdene daughters?? ...hmm, (note to self...must search out the rolling hillsides for sheep, errant Irish sheepdog, and...hah!). Like b BridgettM Nov 05, 2016 I'm sure there are some people who rush to see every film adaptation of classic novels. I am not one of those people and I have not read the adult fiction book of the same title, but I enjoyed this movie more than I expected I would. It is rated PG-13 for some sexuality and violence. Like a Amnebe Oct 24, 2016 I've read probably 10 of Hardy's novels and found this one okay but forgettable.

However, the movie version made more of an impression on me. It's well cast and well acted. While there's plenty of peril along the way, the movie ends on a warm and delightful note. While I'd not read the book again, I'd certainly watch the movie again. Like a AmyEighttrack Aug 17, 2016 A "feel good" movie. Yep. Go ahead, play on my sentimental heartstrings... Can I say that? Oh yeah, I just did... Escapist? Yes... Like d durogoff Aug 09, 2016 If Hardy's novel is rather verbose for a 21st Century reader, the film is only understandable after reading it. The adaptation, while trying to be quite literal, particularly in the dialogues, lacks coherence because the long explanations of the novel are not there. Thus for instance, several commenters had problems with the scene of the sheep going over the cliff, which the book clearly if rather too much at length explains. While the acting, the scenery and the photography made the movie, the editing of the scenes is choppy, most likely because of the need to keep the film not too long.

It would have gained by making it 3 hours long, or even a mini-series. Like c chriscoleman Jul 05, 2016 I have not read the novel. I loved the movie. The scene with the sheep going off the cliff was really disturbing. I was not expecting that and it's pretty abrupt. Here's the plot. Gabriel is a young farmer with a flock of sheep. Bathsheba is a young girl staying with her aunt. They become friends and he proposes. She says no, something unheard of back then. She goes back to the city and his flock is decimated by a tragic accident. He is left penniless, wandering around for work. He comes across Bathsheba again, only now she owns a large farm. She hires him and he saves her farm. Meanwhile she has another suitor, a neighbor almost twice her age who she jokingly asks to marry her. He takes it seriously. She rebukes him and then ends up marrying a man she just met who turns out to be a cheater and someone who will spend all of her money. There's a history with him and a young girl he got pregnant, but I won't go there.

Anyway, any more would be giving away the farm. It does have a happy ending, but it takes a lot to get there. I'm a big fan of Pride and Prejudice as well as Sense and Sensibility. This one isn't as good but close enough to give it five stars. I think a lot of the negative ratings stem from the heroine's acting. She is over the top a lot, but back then any woman who had an opinion was over the top. Like j jimg2000 Oct 14, 2015 Bathsheba: It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in a language chiefly made by men to express theirs. Bathsheba: Mr Oak, I don't want a husband. I'd hate to be some man's property. I shouldn't mind being a bride at a wedding if I could be one without getting a husband! Bathsheba: From now on, you have a mistress, not a master. I don't yet know my talents in farming, but I shall do my best. Don't suppose, because I'm a woman, I don't know the difference between bad goings-on and good. I shall be up before you're awake.

I shall be a-field before you are up. It is my intention to astonish you all. === Bathsheba: A man did ask to marry me once. Some time ago. But I was too restless to be tied down. Maid: What a luxury, to have a choice. "Kiss my foot, sir, my face is for mouths of consequence." Super Reviewer ½ Beautiful looking film is missing the lyricism of the '67 version. The loss of almost an hour's running time hurts the story. As for the performances Carey Mulligan is a more somber Bathsheba than Julie Christie was, that's not bad just different and Matthias Schoenaerts is very good as Gabriel Oak. Michael Sheen is the main sufferer, along with Juno Temple as Fanny Robin, from the editing of the story losing a great deal of character depth in Boldwood but he does what he can. Sturridge however is a disaster as Sgt. Troy, a blank slate who does things with no real rhyme nor reason. It's the actor not the role because Terence Stamp made him electric in the earlier version. jay nixon Super Reviewer Far From the Madding Crowd is an exquisitely produced period piece.

The cinematography, costumes and music are the accoutrements from which Academy Awards are bestowed. Cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen beautifully evokes the rural culture of the English countryside portrayed in Thomas Hardy's novel. The chronicle is well acted. Carey Mulligan makes a fetching Bathsheba Everdene. The Oscar nominated actress (An Education) has proven herself a capable leading lady. Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen and Tom Sturridge all do well by their parts as her admirers. I couldn't help but think that Aaron Taylor-Johnson would've embodied the qualities of Sergeant Francis Troy a little better but otherwise well cast. Schoenaerts is the standout. With the right future roles, the actor could easily become a star. And yet, despite all these accolades, I was largely unmoved by Bathsheba's dilemma. I couldn't sympathize with her plight. Her decision is so evident it's ridiculous. The consensus is that Director Thomas Vinterberg's interpretation is preferable to the 1967 version directed by John Schlesinger. I'll buy that, but I suppose there's the respected text if you really need more depth.

If you keep score about such things it's still Book: 1 - Movie: 0. fastfilmreviews.com Mark Hobin Far from the Madding Crowd - Movies & TV on Google Play Far from the Madding Crowd October 1967 Item added to wishlist. Item removed from wishlist. You will receive an email when your movie becomes available. You will not be charged until it is released. ( 15) Synopsis Julie Christie stars as a beautiful and fiercely independent Englishwoman of the 19th century in this lush and moving adaptation of Thomas Hardy's classic romantic novel Far From The Madding Crowd. When proud, headstrong and unmarried Bathsheba Everdene (Christie) inherits a farm, she becomes a woman of independent means. Although three men court her, Bathsheba refuses to settle for less than a perfect suitor ... which she will never find. But after she does agree to marry, Bathsheba realizes the mistakes she has made and the damage her actions have caused. My review Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy · OverDrive: eBooks, audiobooks and videos for libraries Classic Literature Fiction At the beginning of the novel, Bathsheba Everdene is a beautiful young woman without a fortune.

She meets Gabriel Oak, a young farmer, and saves his life one evening. He asks her to marry him, but she refuses because she does not love him. Upon inheriting her uncle's prosperous farm she moves away to the town of Weatherbury. A disaster befalls Gabriel's farm and he loses his sheep; he is forced to give up farming. He goes looking for work, and in his travels finds himself in Weatherbury. After rescuing a local farm from fire he asks the mistress if she needs a shepherd. It is Bathsheba, and she hires him. As Bathsheba learns to manage her farm she becomes acquainted with her neighbor, Mr. Boldwood, and on a whim sends him a valentine with the words "Marry me." Boldwood becomes obsessed with her and becomes her second suitor. Rich and handsome, he has been sought after by many women. Bathsheba refuses him because she does not love him, but she then agrees to reconsider her decision. That very night, Bathsheba meets a handsome soldier, Sergeant Troy. Unbeknownst to Bathsheba, he has recently impregnated a local girl, Fanny Robin, and almost married her.

Troy falls in love with Bathsheba, enraging Boldwood. Bathsheba travels to Bath to warn Troy of Boldwood's anger, and while she is there, Troy convinces her to marry him. Gabriel has remained her friend throughout and does not approve of the marriage. A few weeks after his marriage to Bathsheba, Troy sees Fanny, poor and sick; she later dies giving birth to her child. Bathsheba discovers that Troy is the father. Grief-stricken at Fanny's death and riddled with shame, Troy runs away and is thought to have drowned. With Troy supposedly dead, Boldwood becomes more and more emphatic about Bathsheba marrying him. Troy sees Bathsheba at a fair and decides to return to her. Boldwood holds a Christmas, to which he invites Bathsheba and again proposes marriage; just after she has agreed, Troy arrives to claim her. Bathsheba screams, and Boldwood shoots Troy dead. He is sentenced to life in prison. A few months later, Bathsheba marries Gabriel, now a prosperous bailiff. Please Note: This book is easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher.

The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year. Both versions are text searchable.

Question: In which classic novel does Bathsheba Everdene appear?
Answer: FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD